St. Joseph County health officials have launched a new way to give more kids what they need to excel in school this year, and you can help.
In her newly created position as School Health Liaison at the St. Joseph County Health Department, Ashley Helman has been logging a lot of miles. She’s been meeting with nurses and aides who work at the county’s nearly 100 schools to learn more about students’ health needs.
What Helman’s found is that many students are missing critical class time because they lack basic health items. So the health department is asking the public to donate them. The needed items are broken down into four focus areas:
Hygiene, meaning things like toothbrushes, toothpaste, and deodorant; high-protein snacks to moderate blood sugar for kids with diabetes; and clothing, especially pants, underwear, and socks in case of accidents. There’s also a lot of “period poverty,” which calls for more feminine hygiene products, pants and underwear.
Helman said some school nurses have had to dip into their own pockets to buy high-protein snacks like string cheese, nuts and meat sticks for kids with diabetes.
"Nurses are sharing the kids are in their office for hours at a time waiting for those basic things that they need just to get back into the classroom," Helman said.
